Beech/Beechcraft

Walter H. Beech had resigned from Travel Air in 1930 when with his wife Olive Ann Beech he set up the Beech Aircraft Co. in Wichita, Kansas in 1932. He had designed the Model 17 ‘staggerwing’ biplane, and went on to produce the Model 18 in huge numbers, and a whole series of other aircraft, branching out eventually into missiles, spacecraft and aircraft subcontract manufacturing. Walter had died in 1950, and Olive Ann became the CEO of the company for the next 30 years. The company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Raytheon in 1980.